Cuyahoga County Signs Project Labor Agreement for Justice Center Project

Cuyahoga County signs PLA for Justice Center project
Cuyahoga County entered into a Project Labor Agreement with the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council to transform three floors inside the Justice Center into a Central Booking Area. Various trades affiliated with the Cleveland Building Trades will convert 37,400-square-feet of space into an area designed to speed up the processing of suspects and help reduce the jail population.

The Central Booking Area will initially handle suspects coming before the Court of Common Pleas or Cleveland Municipal Court. It will also be used to assess suspects for mental health issues or addiction problems.

In late February, Ozanne Construction was selected as the project’s general contractor. They submitted a winning bid of $825,000 for planning, design, demolition, construction and other preparation services. The renovation work will begin this month, said Dave Wondolowski, Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary. He estimated the project will create between 50 and 60 construction jobs.

The greatest challenge on the project is the short, six-month timeline to complete the project.
“This work has to be completed quickly, as it impacts the jail population,” Wondolowski said. “The PLA will assure that there will not be any unnecessary interruptions, which could slow the job down.” According to The Plain Dealer, the administration of County Executive Armond Budish wanted to create central booking space at the current jail, rather than wait until a new jail is built.

A committee consisting of Cuyahoga County leaders, City of Cleveland representatives and several judges are meeting to decide if the antiquated Justice Center should be renovated or if a new Justice Center should be built. The current Justice Center houses courtrooms and a jail.
In recent years, the jail has come under scrutiny for overpopulation problems and the controversial practice of “red-zoning,” in which inmates are locked down for the majority of the day due to disproportionate ratios of inmates to corrections officers.

The new Central Booking facility within the existing Justice Center is expected to help ease the overcrowding of the county jail with more efficient processing of non-violent offenders.